In this context an electric vehicle means a vehicle, which gains wholly or partially (determined in percentages) the energy necessary for its operation from stored electric energy of a storing device, primarily, the battery that has a given capacity. With respect to bicycles supplemented with electric drive (e-bikes) and man-operated vehicles (for example three-wheel vehicles, recumbent vehicles or tandem bicycles) it can be preset what portion of the energy necessary for the operation of the vehicle the driver intends to cover from its own energy or from the electric drive.
Such electric vehicles, due to the limits of finite energy storage capacity, have a given and known (or calculable) range on a horizontal surface. The range is usually determined as a horizontal distance which can be covered by a fully charged vehicle until the battery goes flat. This distance obviously depends on the weight of the given vehicle, the sort of operation (man-power or electric) and the load arising from the weight of the driver and/or the passengers. As the dependency from the above parameters is fairly well calculable, when determining the range these parameters should be stored into a device making the calculation. Also, it should be stored into the device in advance as a parameter whether the given user would like to know (i) the maximum range of the fully charged battery or the half range (if such user goes from a starting point to a target point and then would like to return to the starting point); or (ii) the range related to the use of any predetermined part of the capacity of the battery.
The variables determined herein are parameters, which can be set by the user as he or she wishes, and from such information the range related to the given parameters on a horizontal surface can be easily determined.
However, in reality there is no ideal horizontal road, as the roads follow the landscape, there are uphills and slopes. Certain electric vehicles are capable of regenerating the energy owing to the recharging effect when the vehicle is using its brakes. On the other hand, going uphill, depending on the angle of the uphill, requires more energy than travelling on a horizontal road.
In the context of this invention real range means the actual range, considering, among others, the landscape, which can be covered by the vehicle based on the set parameters and by using a predetermined portion of the battery capacity. Obviously, the real range strongly depends on the landscape, therefore, the real range will mean the various distances from a circle drawn around the starting point that shows the theoretical range.
There are certain computerized devices for determining the real range on a given road, primarily simulator programs, which calculate the real range following the input of the information of the vehicle, the load and the inclination of the road determined in a percentage. Such simulator is not capable of determining the real range applicable to the given road, but it takes into consideration the ascent.
Another simulation method already uses the route finder function provided by the Google Maps applications and connects this with another known database containing the landscape data as well; this method is capable of determining the real range with respect to a given road or finding charging stations within the range.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,332,151 B2 a method and a system are introduced for (i) determining a gradient in a field and based on that (ii) for the navigation of the vehicle, which requires the knowledge of correct status and altitude information of the vehicle; and such data are considered together with a pre-stored known field database. The primary purpose of this system is to determine the correct navigation and the gradient and it does not deal with the questions related to the determination of the real range.